Buncombe County News

This news item expired on 3/31/2013, so the information below could be outdated or incorrect.

Deer in the Landscape

Though a herd of deer may look charming grazing in a meadow, they are not always so welcomed in the landscape. In some Buncombe County communities, deer can be more than a nuisance as they graze on valuable landscape plants. Especially during the winter, when their natural food supply is less abundant, they may develop a fondness for well fertilized landscape offerings.

Unfortunately, there is not an easy way of preventing deer from eating your plants. Who wants to surround their property with a unbroken 8 foot tall fence? Often the best approach is to try to select plants they do not like. Even this is tricky, because just like people, they don't all seem to have the same tastes. And plants they do not prefer may still be eaten if they get hungry enough.

A few of the plants that seem particularly attractive to deer include pansies, day lilies, hostas, English ivy, fruit trees, rhododendrons and roses.

Some that they seldom damage include birch, barberry, boxwood, holly, nandina, pieris, dogwood and forsythia.